Freezing fruit with low to no sugar?

[AlwaysByMySide]

I am loaded in strawberries and peaches. Some are going into the dehydrator, but I was hoping to freeze a bunch, because I make green smoothies every day, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper to even just buy a bunch of berries and freeze 'em up than it is to buy already frozen.

I've googled my brains out, but everything I read online says that I have to cook them, or preserve them in an immense amount of sugar. I just want plain, frozen fruit. I don't care what it looks like, because it's all going to go into a blender with a ton of spinach and turn green anyway. It would kind of defeat the purpose of a healthy smoothie to be adding fruit with a ridiculous amount of sugar.

Can I just toss in water with absorbic acid, individually quick freeze, and then put in containers? Am I missing something here?

I tried searching the huge preservation thread, but even there, it seems like a lot of you go with canning, or doing stuff with sugar.

I've done frozen bananas the IQF way, and never had any issues, but I also never bothered to google to figure out how to freeze bananas, so maybe I'm making this harder than it needs to be?

For the record, as blueberries start ripening here in the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be freezing a ton of those as well, so if special rules apply, I'd love to hear 'em.

[mamadelbosque]

I just spread them out on cookie sheets and freeze then drop in ziplock bags... I freeze on a cookie sheet initially so that I can pull out just a handful or teh whole bag as I choose (otherwise, they all freeze together). I do this for starwberries, blackberries, blueberries, peaches, green beans, broccoli, and most any other veggie/fruit that I happen to freeze (though I do blanch some of my veggies first).

ETA: Oh, I do slice the peaches up first. And I decided to slice my strawberries in half this year so far too (actually, I should go throw'm in bags... probably that'll wait till morning though, mostly for space-saving reasons, though also for convenience (whole strawberries are a PITA to cut up after having been frozen I've learned... and cause' DS seems to eat them more readily if they're cut in half/quarters depending on size

[AlwaysByMySide]

LOL, I was planning to peel and slice the peaches. I was also going to slice the strawberries in half as well, just to be easier on my blender.

I'm glad I was making it harder than it was, because I was about to have a panic attack thinking about what a waste they would all be because I was SO not into having to sugar everything up to freeze 'em!

[mamafish9]

Nah, we just freeze them!

If you do any canning/preserving, check out Pomona's pectin - it sets using calcium (you just add a little of their provided calcium in water to your fruit). Normal pectin sets (gels) on sugar, so that's why most recipes have a ton of sugar. With the Pomona's pectin, you can use as little sugar (or alternative sweetener) as you like.

For example, we made strawberry jam yesterday with 3/4c sugar per batch, with 4c mashed strawberries. Most recipes call for 2-4c of sugar (which is insane!).

Anyhow, another alternative if you run out of freezer space at some point!

[lmonter]

Just IQF your fruit pieces/slices. You'll be good. If you don't care about the color, don't bother with sugar or ascorbic acid. Just have a really, really cold freezer (like crank it up) so it doesn't take long to freeze. My trick with juicy peaches was to put them on my stackable (cookie) cooling racks on top of a cookie sheet so the cookie sheet would catch all the drippings and leave no mess in my freezer.

And as long as you do the IQF thing and not freezing things in chunks, you should be good. Last year I froze strawberries, peaches, blueberries, and I think that was about it since I had a newborn attached to me.

If you want no/low sugar or honey sweetened jams, check out Pomona Pectin. Can sometimes be a bit tricky the first few times you use it, but very neat stuff.

Oh, and beware of freezer burn with your IQF things. Like if you have a vacuum sealer, that may come in handy so you don't end up with a bunch of ice crystals on everything.

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

Another vote for just slicing and then freezing on a cookie sheet. I spread a tea towel on the cookie sheet first. This makes it easier to lift the fruit off. I lift up the towel and fold it and pour all the fruit into a bag.

[celestialdreamer]

I've always just done the IQF method and stored them in freezer bags. I never even thought about cooking or adding sugar first.

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

What does IQF stand for?

[AlwaysByMySide]

Originally Posted by Rhiannon Feimorgan

What does IQF stand for?

Individually quick freeze. If you tossed a bunch of strawberries into a bag and then put the whole bag in the freezer, you'd have a big block of strawberries. If you IQF them, and THEN put them in a bag, they won't stick together. (Or, they'll stick together LESS.

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

Gotcha. That's what I do, I just never knew what it was called other than freezing on a cookie sheet.

[JamieCatheryn]

I found rectangular glass pans, pre chilled, and having the freezer cranked to the max, fruit spread out in a single layer, worked well. Cookie sheets I couldn't really stack, and the glass held cold well ahead of time.

[Rachel J.]

Peaches can be frozen whole with peel and then defrosted slightly and cut up. They're not very space efficient but it's super fast

[Samm]

Blueberries - I was told NOT to wash them before IQF.

[Green Eyes]

Originally Posted by Samm

Blueberries - I was told NOT to wash them before IQF.

I heard that, too, but I always rinse them and let them dry on a towel before freezing. If you rinse them while they are frozen, water freezes around them and they clump together, and washing first doesn't affect the quality.

[PiesandAbrosmama]

we just freeze!!

[painefaria]

We just freeze. We just did freshly picked cherrys We washed, pitted, and dried and IQF. They came out really well and now I have 2 gallon sized bags of yummy cherries. We have successfully IQF blanched Broccoil, strawberries, blueberries, green beans. We will be doing corn this year instead of canning it. It was too time consuming and not worth it. I would rather freeze and not have to use the salt...